1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for cutting gel. More specifically, this invention provides a process and apparatus for cutting gel from a layer of gel material on a slide and remove it therefrom by using vacuum pressure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous types of vacuum nozzles are known in the prior art which are adapted for use with a vacuum source as a means to pick up in a scraping manner surface coverings such as paint, varnish and so forth. Other prior art devices are known for use in picking up materials which use ejector type nozzles at a high pressure source to move particles into the device and through a conduit and discharge. Some prior art devices are known in the art as operable to punch apertures into a layer of gel material on a slide and remove the cut slugs of gel material so that perforated layer on the slide can be used in laboratory analysis. The device known in the prior art to punch apertures in a layer of gel material is constructed so as to punch a plurality of apertures in the gel material in a circular pattern with the individual apertures being circular. Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,463,455 by M. Dann, issued Mar. 1, 1949. Dann teaches a crude punch for semi-solid media which is very inefficient. The cutter portion in Dann is circular vice flattened which means that it is not readily adaptable for cutting in a linear path. Also, Dann shows no hollow body of sufficient size having handles thereon to facilitate a user's grasp for linear cutting. The cutting edge in Dann has an areal opening larger than the hollow body (indicated as 1 therein); therefore, a large portion of the vacuum pressure is lost in the cutter.
Various other tools have been designed and devised for working in medical and scientific research for the particular purpose of working with agar gel and placing it on slides and molding, forming or otherwise working with it after it has been poured and after it has set. The general purpose of some of these working tools is to form cuts, cavities or wells in the agar gel layer after it is formed on a slide. With the exception of a molded pre-shaped agar gel slide, the hand tools known to the prior art are designed to scrap or more or less dig a cavity or well in the gel material after it has been placed on the slide. These hand tools require much careful manipulation in order to remove the gel material from the slide in a particular and desired shape without causing the gel material to fall onto the adjacent gel material of the remainder of the slide covering adjacent to the formed cavity or well. No hand tool is known in the prior art which provides a means of cutting a layer of agar gel material on a slide and removing it from the area so as to prevent its contact with the remaining portions of the layer or covering.